You always yank the band-aid off.  If you try and do it slow and steady, it just makes it more painful and last longer.  Forest fires, while devastating, kill off unhealthy plants, nourish the soil, and let the forest grow back stronger and healthier.  I could come up with a hundred analogies but the point is – The same is true of the economy.  If you don’t remove the issues that caused the pain and instead prop up the bad business decisions with a handout of money without regulatory oversight to fix the issues, you’re rewarding bad business for causing the problems in the first place.  Nearly every economist who has any idea what’s going on in the business world — other than those in charge of the companies, of course — is against the idea of bailing out these companies.  Yet, the popular notion is to prop up these companies to “protect” the economy.

I’m not an economist… but I am married to one and I’m also one of those “elitists” that reads the excellent Economist.  Plus, I stayed at a Holiday Inn awhile ago.

Update: A few more links about the bailout.